"Just try not to kill each other."
"Soooo. What do we do now?"
Protector of Silence
Chapter Thirty-One - Left to our own devices
Kellyn found himself fortunate to have survived his ordeal, so naturally didn't bring the subject up very much. Keith though had damaged his leg and whilst it wasn't broken, he still limped on it a bit. Kellyn's reluctance to share his story though led to Keith getting some fame of his own. At first the story seemed quite reasonable, he was investigating some strange noises when something moved underground and he fell into the hole. But, this being Keith, the story slowly started to change and distort. Three weeks later, Keith was telling a thrilling tale of how he wrestled a Drapion with his bare hands and kicked it flying so hard he was knocked backwards into the hole by his own 'amazing' strength.
"He's acting like he was the one who fought Hunter J, not you" Kate commented.
Kellyn shrugged, he didn't really care.
'Besides, I can't say I fought her, I just listened and then ran away' he thought.
By the end of this three week period, it was mid-April and time for the trip to the Chroma Ruins. However, Janice had refused to let Keith go for fear of injuring his leg further. The ginger opened his mouth to protest, but finally reluctantly agreed when Kellyn, Kate, Rhythmi and Starlight agreed to stay with him.
"We should be the ones on that bus" Keith muttered, watching the yellow bus pulled away from Ranger School and drive over the bridge to the mainland.
"Oh come on Keith!" Kate elbowed him "Cheer up! Three whole days for the five of us with no teachers! How awesome is that?!"
It was true about no teachers. The Principle, Miss April and Kincaid had all gone on the trip. Kaplan and Claire had returned to their home in Pueltown for a break and Cook had left the region to collect berries from Sinnoh. So it was just them, Janice and the Pokemon.
'Three whole days in the lunie-bin with Keith' Kellyn rolled his eyes slightly 'Oh joy of joys!'
If there was anything this quintet weren't, it was responsible. So when Janice announced she was heading to Pueltown to pick up some delieveries, they hit the roof. Well, except one person.
"YEEEEESSSSS!" Keith was bouncing around like he was on sugar-high "A whole day to OURSELVES!"
"I'm already starting to regret this" Janice sighed, slinging her handbag over her shoulder.
"Starlight, please make sure Keith doesn't do anything too stupid" Rhythmi sighed, slipping a blue backpack on.
"Where are you going again?" Starlight asked.
"The market in Vientown" Rhythmi answered "It's only open on Wednesdays, so since Janice and Cook are away I thought I might as well go there myself."
"Wait, you're leaving me here alone with three boys?!" Kate looked horrified and gave Rhythmi a hug so fierce she almost crushed the blonde "Please don't leave me!"
"Oh Kate!" Rhythmi laughed, prying her terrified friend off her "It's only Keith that's giddy. Just keep him away from the sugar and he'll be fine. Plus, you get to spend some time alone with Kellyn."
"What's that supposed to mean?!" Kate demanded, her cheeks turning three shades redder.
"Oh never mind!" Rhythmi laughed "I'll see you guys this evening."
She waved and then turned and walked down the steps out of the school gates.
"I should be back by tonight" Janice infomed Kate and Starlight "Just, try not to kill each other."
She set off after Rhythmi.
Kate and Starlight stared at each other for a few seconds, unsure of what to do. Then both shook their heads and went inside, closing the door behind them.
Upstairs in the common room, Keith had found the secret cupcake stash and was pratically bouncing off the walls in a mad sugar-rush. At the moment, he was doing what appeared to be a cross between an irish jig and a tap dance on top of one of the tables.
"We've gotta look after him for a day?" Kate grimaced.
Starlight nodded with a pained look on his face.
At that moment, the door to the bathroom opened. Kellyn had apparently been taking a shower because he was rubbing his chocolate-brown hair with a towel, making it spike in all directions. He grunted and handed them his notebook. The page had a pre-written message on it:
I'm hungry
"Not just you" Starlight grunted. He walked over to the sofa where Luna and Shadow were sleeping and patted the Umbreon on the head before scooting him along so he could sit in between the two Pokemon.
Kellyn frowned and underlined his previous sentence.
"We all are Kellyn" Kate sighed "But we need to wait for Rhythmi to come back with the food. If your lucky, there may be a sandwich or something in the fridge."
Kellyn snorted and stormed off towards the canteen.
"So, what do we do now?" Kate asked Starlight. The silver-haired boy shrugged.
"Movie!" Keith cheered. He bounced off the table onto the sofa next to Starlight's. However, the springs were too much for him and he was set flying off the sofa, faceplanting the floor.
"I'm fine!" Keith said cheerily, rubbing his nose as he sat up "Please can we watch a movie?! Pleeeeeeeeeease!"
"Only if you promise to settle down and be sensible" Kate said in a mothering tone, looking down at Keith with arms folded.
"I promise, I promise, I promise, I promise!" Keith begged on his knees in front of Kate "Pweeeease Kate! Pwity pwease?!"
Kate scowled. Those darn puppy-dog eyes! They were almost as unbareable as Kellyn's, although used ten times as much.
"Oh fine!" she sighed "Just find a good one!"
Keith cheered and raced over to the DVD pile.
"Nothing corney and no horror movies" Starlight warned him "I know what your movie taste is like."
"Oh don't be such a worry-puss!" Keith grinned, still on sugar-high, flicking through the DVDs "Ooh! Yes! Death Star Destroyer!"
"No!" Kate and Starlight both growled.
Keith pouted. "What do you want then?! The tragedy of Plusle and Minum?!"
"I like that movie!" Kate protested.
"You like it?" Starlight blinked "But it's so sad."
"It's a romatic" Kate pointed out.
"It's about two blind lovers from warring families who end up commiting suicide to be with each other! What's so brilliant about that?!" Keith waved his arms in the air to highlight his point.
"As much as I hate to, I have to agree with him" Starlight added.
"Oh fine" Kate sighed "What other movies are there?"
Keith resumed flicking through the DVDs. "Pokemon Ranger and the Temple of the Sea?" he suggested, holding the DVD case up.
"No way, I've seen it like a thousand times" Kate shook her head.
"Pokemon Heroes?" Keith held up the next DVD.
"Too depressing" Starlight shook his head.
"Pokemon 2000?" Keith held up the next DVD.
"What about that one about the Pokemon from outer space?" Kate suggested.
"You mean Destiny Deoxys?" Keith asked "Um, I think it's in here somewhere..." He began setting some of the DVD cases on the table next to the table "Lucario and the Mystery of Mew, Arceus and the Jewel of Life, Giratina and the Sky Warrior... Aha! Here it is!"
He waved a DVD case in the air "Destiny Deoxys!" He removed the DVD, which had a Rayquaza head printed on it, from the case and turned on the DVD player. After inputing the DVD, Keith turned on the television and flicked through the channels to get to the DVD channel. When he finally found it, the adverts at the beginning had begun announcing what had been in the cinemas several years ago at the time the DVD was new. He promptly sat down on the end of the sofa next to Starlight.
As the movie was reaching the start menu, Kellyn returned. He was holding a ham sandwich, looking proud of himself. Just as he was about to take a bite, Keith suddenly snatched the sandwich from Kellyn.
"Thanks Kel! My favourite sandwich!" Keith grinned and downed it.
Kellyn watched it with a horrified expression on his face as Keith ate the last of the food. He then growled and drove his foot into the floor, folding his arms and his eyes flashing murderously.
"Oh stop stressin' out, me ami!" Keith gave Kellyn such a hard pat on the back the smaller boy almost face-planted the wooden floor. "Come on! We're watching Destiny Deoxys!"
Kellyn gave Keith one last furious look before stomping over to the sofa and sitting on the other end next to Kate.
The movie wasn't a comedy, so there wasn't any hysterical laughter, except from Keith at the Team Rocket clips and the Plusle and Minun scenes which Kate 'awwww'ed at. The movie was one of Kellyn's favourites: about a boy called Tori who was afraid of Pokémon but with the help of Ash, a Plusle and a Minun came to love them at the end of the movie. Plus Rayquaza and Deoxys were having a massive fight above the city.
An hour-and-a-half later, the credits began to roll. Before any of them could turn the DVD off, Keith stopped them so he could sing along to one of his favourite songs, This Side Of Paradise.
"There's a place I knoooow! It's always jumpin'! I'm thinking we should go and leeeeeave our worrrrrieeeeessss!"
"Keith stop it!" Kate covered her ears. She liked the song too, but Keith's singing was beyond terrible.
"You've gotta friend in meeee! And I'll tell you somethin'! This time can be extrodiiiiiinaryyyyyy!"
"Keith! Put a sock in it!" yelled Starlight, barely able to hear himself over Keith's singing and his covered ears.
Keith just turned the volume up on the television so he could sing along even louder.
"When shadows fall you're feelin' smaaall! It looks like walls are clo...OW!" Keith stopped singing and began rubbing his nose where someone had punched him.
Both Kellyn and Kate were standing right in front of him, blocking his view of the television; he couldn't tell which one had punched him. Starlight had turned the volume down and paused the DVD.
"What?!" he complained.
"You were singing" Kate informed him.
Keith shrugged. "So?"
Kate facepalmed.
"Just don't start singing again, okay Keith?" Starlight warned him and he ejected the DVD and put it back in its case.
"Alright" Keith sighed, leaning back against the sofa and folding his arms behind his head "Soooo. What do we do now?"
There was a long pause.
"I'm gonna go outside" Starlight said, getting to his feet "Take Luna and Shadow out for a bit."
Kellyn nodded and agreement and followed him out.
Kate stretched and announced: "I'm going to take a shower. Keith, you ought to finish that homework Miss April set. It's still not done and it's in for Monday."
"Yeah, I guess" Keith shrugged send mumbled.
Kate fetched him a glass of water and he uncovered some (very dusty) schoolbooks and a pencil case from his room. She made sure he was acutally going to do his homework before she grabbed her towel and headed into the bathroom.
"Well ain't that predictable" Kate grumbled, throwing her towel into the wash basket behind her.
Keith was still sitting on the sofa, a table in front of him with his soon-to-be-completed homework and glass of water on top. Now however, though the homework still wasn't completed, the glass of water was empty and Keith was sprawled out on the sofa, asleep. Kate walked around to the other side of the sofa and saw his head was tilted back on top of the sofa, snoring and disgustingly drooling.
"Keith Dazuru!" Kate yelled slamming her palms onto the sofa either side of Keith's head.
Keith jolted awake and yelped, waving his arms madly in the air and almost hitting Kate.
"W-What was that for?!" he cried.
"You were sleeping!" Kate narrowed her eyes, keeping her hands planted either side of Keith's head, and leant forwards so their noses were inches apart "What happened to actually getting a C in your Maths exam this year!"
Keith leant backwards, feeling extremely uncomfortable with the close contact.
"W-What happened to your crush on Kellyn?" he gulped.
"Wha?! What are you talking about!" Kate gasped, straightening "How dare you!" Automatically her hands were at Keith's throat. "What rumours have you been spreading?! Huh?!"
"Gah!" Keith chocked, trying to free the furious gingerette's grip on his neck as she positively screamed at him.
"Guys! We have a big problem!"
Kate looked over her shoulder as a voice called from the doorway. She let go of Keith's neck in shock, allowing the poor boy to breathe. When he finally got some oxygen into his lungs, Keith peered around the stunned Kate to see what had shocked her.
He felt sick.
With Shadow and Luna standing at his feet, Starlight was panting in the doorway at the top of the steps. His white hair was wild and his golden-brown eyes were wide with fear. In his arms he carried the tiny frame of Kellyn. He was limp and pale, and didn't appear to be breathing...